Merel Bonewit wins UvA Thesis Award 2025

The seven nominees – one from each faculty – were the winners of the faculty thesis prize; from these seven, the jury selected a grand prize winner, which this year went to Merel Bonewit: a sum of three thousand euros. The other faculty winners were Beau van Dijk (Acta), Olaiya Antonia Aro (FMG), Selena Huisman (Medicine), Aleksandra Guzik (FdR), Marlies Couch (FGw) and Nina Chen (FNWI). They each received a prize of one thousand euros.

To be eligible for the UvA thesis prize, the nominated Master’s theses had to be able to withstand scientific scrutiny and have social impact and relevance, as assessed by a jury.

Vietnam

Merel Bonewit travelled to Vietnam for her research, a country where stroke is the leading cause of death and disability, with nearly 200,000 new cases and 170,000 deaths per year in a population of 100 million. In Vietnam, she investigated ways to improve the accessibility of stroke centres.

“When a patient has a stroke, rapid treatment is crucial to limit brain damage and the risk of death. To achieve this, it is important that as many residents as possible – especially people from risk groups – live within a short distance of a stroke centre,” says Bonewit. “The accessibility of stroke centres can therefore best be improved by strategically locating new centres.”

In her thesis Optimising Stroke Care Accessibility for At-Risk Populations - which was awarded a 9½ -  she developed a tool that can determine these optimal locations. The results of Bonewit; s research can be applied more broadly and ultimately used by governments. With that goal in mind, the non-profit organisation Analytics for a Better World is now further developing the tool.

Bonewit received the award during the annual Education Day last week. She had previously won the George Molenkamp Sustainability Thesis Award for her research. She now works as a consultant at Simon-Kucher.